Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves - A Lie

Only Democratic Baby Boomers! Republican baby boomers are set for life because they aren’t lazy, do nothing Democrats.

Too bad we could not see a full text of his comments… Tax cuts are not the driver of the deficits…

" In Fiscal Year 2019, the federal budget will be $4.407 trillion."

The tax cuts are only 165 billion a year. And if the guy is correct you get 30% percent back in dynamic scoring. It drops to about 100 billion a year.

It’s the spending, not the tax cuts… And now dems want medicare for all, and free college education.

The full video and transcript is available at the link I sent.

Tax cuts are absolutely the driver for the increased deficits. Revenue for FY2018 [1] came in around $200 billion lower than projected [2] prior to the tax cuts. Spending came in only $14 billion higher than projected. So, about 94% of the increase in deficit is due to the lower revenue from the tax cuts.

  1. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-11/54647-MBR.pdf
  2. https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/recurringdata/51118-2017-06-budgetprojections.xlsx

Yeah, no, that’s not how it works. We were projected to get about $3,531 billion in revenue in FY2018 prior to the tax cuts. We ended up with $3,329 billion. That’s already factoring in the ■■■■■■■ economy growth.

Then there’s this little gem from the December Monthly Budget Review:

Individual income and payroll (social insurance) taxes together fell by $1 billion (or less than
1 percent).

So poof goes your favorite talking point of individual income taxes going up.

Yeah, like they’re going to cut the tax…

The last tax cut cost that much. Add that to the tax before that and the tax cut before that and the tax cut before that.

Pretty soon you’ll find where the budget deficit comes from.

I don’t need it so no one else should either,

Tax cuts can never fail; they can only be failed.

SS can pay full benefits until about 2033. Then, the benefits would be partially cut. That’s if we do nothing.

I understand your wise planning (I’m the same way), but politically, don’t buy into fatalism about it: doing that simply acquiesces to a long-term GOP/right wing strategy to weaken political support for Social Security. It leads to a cynical, Well, it won’t be there for me anyway! view, which makes it much easier to cut/end the program.

“Saving” SS a fake political problem, abetted by a lot of bad faith, coming largely (but not entirely) from the GOP/right for decades. It’s not a real mathematical/financing problem. You can shore it up by raising the payroll tax earnings cap, for example.

I’m Gen X… fatalism is baked in.

I also know that SS can easily be saved… but that would mean that people rich people would have to pay a little more… and as a nation we just can’t have that.

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Oh, I hear you. I am part of the same cohort. And stereotypical in more than one way. :slight_smile:

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Exactly. Simply raising the cap pushes the full benefits horizon to like 2050 or 2060. Then, if we simply make it a progressive tax and increase it by a couple percentage points above the cap, we push full benefits to the infinite horizon or close to it.

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Or we could make social security optional so I can take my money and plan a better retirement for myself.

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Yeah, no. That’s a surefire way to defund the program and leave poor people ■■■■■■■

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Isn’t Social Security an Insurance System for the entire country?

Do you know how insurance works?

They can continue to contribute if they wish. But I would throw them a bone. If the government allows me the option to get out of social security and gives me the option of a health savings account. I will be generous enough to give 1 percent of anything over 5000 dollars in that account.

It is a system that doesn’t serve my purpose. I don’t like spending that kind of money for other people to enjoy.

Game theory strikes again. Sub-optimal aggregate outcome due to pursuing a rational self-interest rather than cooperation.

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